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Hearings Focus On Human Services
Agency Users And Nonprofit Providers Make Their Case For Being Included In County's Budget Expenditures.
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL/WISCONSIN :: B1
Thursday, September 9, 2004
Lesley Rogers Barrett Wisconsin State Journal
Jim Van Boxtel says his disabled son, Mark, slipped through the cracks in the Dane County Department of Human Services.At a public hearing on the Human Services budget Wednesday, Van Boxtel told county officials he spent two years trying to get Mark, now 20, services to help him continue working at a DeForest bookstore. He was denied.
"These are people who are asking for nothing more than a chance," said Van Boxtel, who was one of about 50 people at the hearing.
Van Boxtel's son has a form of autism and is bipolar. He needs a job coach to help him stay on task. Right now, the DeForest School District is helping him, but those services end next year, when Mark turns 21.
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"Without services, I'm not sure Mark will achieve his goal (of working)," Van Boxtel said.
The public hearings continue tonight, with agency users and nonprofit providers asking for more money in the proposed $208 million Human Services budget, which is more than half of the county's overall budget.
County Executive Kathleen Falk will introduce her budget for 2005 on Oct. 1 and the County Board should approve a final spending plan by Thanksgiving.
As proposed, the Human Services budget is about $4 million more than last year. But that amount doesn't cover increased costs and demands for human services, so jobs and programs will be cut.
Providers that contract with Dane County said without an increase, waiting lists will continue and services will be cut.
"The same amount of money doesn't mean the same level of services," said Tim Otis, executive director of the Mental Health Center of Dane County.
Tom Farley, president of the Chris Farley Foundation, asked for continued funding for drug and alcohol treatment. He said his famous brother, who died of a drug overdose in 1997, benefited from an in-house treatment program in New York similar to Dane County's Hope Haven. Chris Farley slept on a cot at the center during his third season of appearing on "Saturday Night Live."
"He certainly wouldn't have survived as long as he did without that," Farley said.
\ If you go
* What: Public hearing on the Dane County Department of Human Services budget
* When: 6 tonight
* Where: Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Center
A summary of the Human Service's proposed budget is online at www.danecountyhumanservices.org/budget/2005/2005_budget.htm
\ Contact Lesley Rogers Barrett at lrogers@madison.com or 252-6139.
